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Official OcUK RX480 4GB and 8GB review thread

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even so you can get a 4GB 970 cough 3.5 card today for £200 so even at £175 it isn't a wow card, think about it nearly 2 years ago the 970 launched at £250-£275 we've waited 2 years for this a node shrink struggles to match the 970 and only cost £75-£100 less (at launch) as well as performance/watt is worse and it's on 14nm I know I'd rather have paid the extra £75-£100 2 years ago and have had a 970 than this junk of a card

I'm not 100% on which model it was but i think it was the MSI 970 that could be had for £235 when it first launched.

I actually think the 4GB 480 is a good card for the price but the 8GB is ridiculous, basically 970 performance for 970 launch price and only offers extra vram.
 
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I disagree. The 970 isn't necessarily faster, and not only that but it's a mature product compared to the 480. Lastly, the gsync premium is real and this is a price bracket where it matters a lot. New? 480 is a win. But you can always get used 970s...

It's the fact it's a brand new card that's only just about the same level as a card released 2 years ago (yes I know it was more expensive) and it only is just comparable now. If it would have been released at the same time or 6 months later then yes AMD would have done something to be applauded.
 
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2 ways to look at it from my pov:

4Gb 970 performance for £180, after selling the free games my crap Founders Edition 970 cost £4 more.:D

Full on 4GB/DX12(none of this kid on pish) for £180 because of crap gbp.:D
 
Soldato
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It's the fact it's a brand new card that's only just about the same level as a card released 2 years ago (yes I know it was more expensive) and it only is just comparable now. If it would have been released at the same time or 6 months later then yes AMD would have done something to be applauded.

This isn't about giving AMD a pat on the back, I'm talking from a buyer's perspective. The fact that the 480 is newer tech isn't a con, but a plus for a new buyer. Secondly, it boils down to price & performance, and the 480 has both of those down, because the comparison isn't between the 480 and what might be released or what could have been released, but what's actually available on the market right now, and in that context it's a very good offering.
 
Soldato
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Apparently PCPER have said the following:

Another oddity – and one that may make enthusiast a bit more cheery – is that AMD only built a single reference design card for this release to cover both the 4GB and 8GB varieties. That means that the cards that go on sale today listed at 4GB models will actually have 8GB of memory on them! With half of the DRAM partially disabled, it seems likely that someone soon will find a way to share a VBIOS to enable the additional VRAM. In fact, AMD provided me with a 4GB and an 8GB VBIOS for testing purpose. It’s a cost saving measure on AMD’s part – this way they only have to validate and build a single PCB.



From a German review site:

Basically, the 16.6.2 that most started their reviews with had a bug resulting in lower performance due to PCIe bandwith issues. AMD sent out a new driver only two days ago, the 16.20.1035.1001-RC1, which is up to 5% faster than the 16.6.2. If you read Polaris reviews, check which drivers they used!

German original (www.ComputerBase.de):

AMD hatte ursprünglich den Crimson 16.6.2 zum Testen zur Verfügung gestellt. Wie ComputerBase jedoch an diesem Montag erfahren hat, hat dieser mit einem Bug zu kämpfen, der die PCIe-Bandbreite limitiert. AMD hat ComputerBase daraufhin den Crimson 16.20.1035.1001-RC1 zur Verfügung gestellt, der das Problem behebt. Alle Werte wurden daraufhin noch einmal erhoben, denn je nach Spiel steigt die Performance durch den neuen Treiber um bis zu fünf Prozent an.

Another quality AMD launch.

:D
 
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Its not a bad card for its price, but its also far from good.

If i was in the market for a £200 card now, it would still be the 970 or their own 390.

I can't believe this is the card AMD intended it to be, its completely underwhelming.
 
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all in all it's taken AMD 2 years and a node shrink to get close (not beat) to the 970 in terms of performance and efficiency it is what it is a fail. and the 980 just runs circles around it
 
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A 970 costs the same now . . . .

I genuinely don't know who this is for????

It has 4gb more memory than a 970, for the same price. But is only effective at 1080p.

Who needs 8gb at 1080p? Surely the better buy would be the 4gb version?
 
Soldato
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A 970 costs the same now . . . .

I genuinely don't know who this is for????

It has 4gb more memory than a 970, for the same price. But is only effective at 1080p.

Who needs 8gb at 1080p? Surely the better buy would be the 4gb version?


People saying the 4G is good value at £175, well yeah the cooler is completely ****, I wouldn't have one.
 
Soldato
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One of the better more technical reviews I have read thus far is from bit-tech.net, linked earlier by someone. Waited a month on this card coming so another few weeks on AIB models/info isn't a problem.

"Sadly, the reference cooler leaves a lot to be desired. The default 2,200 RPM fan speed limit is quickly reached under load in order to keep the card at its default target temperature of 80°C, and the card is relatively loud at this speed – it's certainly nowhere near as bad as the R9 290X and R9 290 cards were, but compared to what we're used to these days it does still stand out. We found clock speeds were not able to remain at the peak boost speed of 1,266MHz, instead typically floating at closer to 1,200MHz. That said, this appears to be at least as much of a power limitation than a thermal one, as upping the power limit saw 1,266MHz maintained virtually all the time.

As a reminder, we added 9 percent to the core and 12.5 percent to the memory speeds when overclocking. With these new frequencies, we were able to achieve performance increases of between 8 and 16 percent – this is possible because we removed the power and thermal limitations, allowing the card to boost higher more often. Again, this isn't a realistic overclock for everyday use, at least not with this cooler, but it is promising that there appears to be a healthy amount of headroom here."



A 970 costs the same now . . . .

I genuinely don't know who this is for????

It has 4gb more memory than a 970, for the same price. But is only effective at 1080p.

Who needs 8gb at 1080p? Surely the better buy would be the 4gb version?

You do realise the RX480 4GB is £176?? Why are people ignoring this card and talking about the GTX970.

LYu4iJ3.png

16 games tested,and the 4GB is not far off the 8GB one it appears.

If you really have a hatred of this card,you can buy an R9 390 then??
 
Soldato
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People forget that the 970 is now a mature product and improvements are unlikely to come. Meanwhile the 480 is freshly launched and will see nothing but updates. It's already neck-in-neck with the 970, or better depending on the reviews, and cheaper. So how is the 970 a better buy again? Let's not even mention the benefit of saving £ on freesync vs gsync.
 
Soldato
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People forget that the 970 is now a mature product and improvements are unlikely to come. Meanwhile the 480 is freshly launched and will see nothing but updates. It's already neck-in-neck with the 970, or better depending on the reviews, and cheaper. So how is the 970 a better buy again? Let's not even mention the benefit of saving £ on freesync vs gsync.

Funny how they also ignore the R9 390 too.
 
Associate
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£175 is a fair price.

Apparently they didn't make two versions of the card, the 4gb card has the ful 8gb onboard, but disabled via a BIOS lock.

Me thinks it'll be unlocked before long.
 
Soldato
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People can complain until they're blue in the face but for £350 you can get the 4GB version and and a 24inch 144hz freesync monitor. To someone who has neither a decent monitor or GPU. This is a bargin!
 
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